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Do We Really Need Live Music?

Mondays at 8:00 PM

WFMT has over 30,000 recordings in its library. This means that the top artists of the better part of the last century are in there. So why take the trouble to do a show like Live from WFMT?

Maybe it’s because there’s one thing compact discs lack: they aren’t live. There’s no risk (performing is scary), there’s no authenticity: a performer’s view of a piece often changes (not to mention the fact that commercial recordings can be heavily edited). Most importantly, CD’s can’t replicate the community experience shared in a live performance.

CD’s are marvelous because they make music and performers readily available anywhere. But hearing live music, that sense of being there, for which people shell out enough money to buy ten CD’s, is second to none. WFMT salutes the music-makers in our own community: the people who play for us, who teach our children, and who help make Chicago one of the cultural capitals of the world.

On Monday evening at 8:00 PM, Live from WFMT returns from summer hiatus with a lively and entertaining Chicago-based ensemble, Anaphora, a group that almost defies description. Here’s what the Chicago Tribune had to say about them:

“(Anaphora is) out there, in terms of its repertory, which extends from the Viennese classics to the newest avant-pop-classical fusion fare.”